Cuba honors, embraces
The people of Matanzas, representing the entire island in mourning, will perform the funeral services today for the 14 combatants whose remains were found after extinguishing the fire at the Supertanker Base

Author: Yeilen Delgado Calvo | nacional@granma.cu

August 18, 2022 22:08:59

Photo: Ricardo López Hevia
The Island seems immersed in the usual pace, the people going to or coming back from work, the parks taken over by a child eager for vacations, the stops, the shops, the winery, the August sun… life. But that apparent normality is just that, appearance.

It is enough to look up, notice the flags at half-staff, and feel again those emotions that overflow from the chest since the news at dawn on Saturday, August 6 –admiration and sadness, restlessness and pride– to understand that the duel is individual and collective, which in its official capacity deeply belongs to the people.

There is still no discussion of another issue than the hardest balance left by the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base: the loss of 16 people.

And they all hurt. Fabián, Michel, Pablo Ángel, Raciel Alonso, Osmani, Leo Alejandro, Rolando, Luis Ángel, Diosdel, Andy Mitchel, Luis Raúl, Areskys, Adriano, Osley, Elier, Juan Carlos hurt us. They hurt us in their youth and in their experience. They hurt us in the courage of their hours facing the flames. They hurt us in the pain of their families.

There is something very sublime and priceless when, after a name and surnames, you add “fallen in the line of duty”; because that duty marks the fate of others, ours; It is the price of survival, of jumping in the face of adversity.

The remains of 14 of those fallen could not be identified, their loved ones will not have such consolation, and there is no one who does not feel in their own flesh the emptiness of family members, of friends; and also the debt we have contracted with his memories.

Today Cuba honors. The tribute is not only fair and essential, it is felt, it is true, it comes from the root of the popular soul. Cuba embraces the fallen, embraces the families, and embraces itself, wounded by her loss.

And even after the day of funeral honors, even after recovery, or when anniversaries accumulate, Cuba will honor. She always will. We will not forget their looks or their sacrifice.